It’s now the turn of Uttar Pradesh’s judiciary to censure those who leave behind paan stains.
A high court judge issued an unusual directive this week banning saliva-stained legal documents from his courtroom after noting, in terse words now part of judicial record, that such habit was “not only disgusting and condemnable” but showed “the lack of basic civic sense.”
Justice Shree Prakash Singh of the Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench took the extraordinary step on September 22 after observing that morning that “more than ten petitions/applications” submitted to his court bore tell-tale “reddish colour saliva” marks from fingers used to turn pages.
The directive comes just months after a similar hygiene crisis rocked another institution: the state assembly. In March, speaker Satish Mahana imposed ₹1,000 fines on legislators caught chewing paan masala after a prominent stain appeared at the entrance of the main assembly hall.
“This is an highly unhygienic situation, which is not only disgusting and condemnable, but at the same time it shows the lack of basic civic sense,” Justice Singh wrote in his order during proceedings in a Bahraich district property dispute case.
The judge didn’t mince words about health risks, expressing his “anxiety” that if “such kind of filthy practice is not restrained, the same will create cause of any sorts of infection to the persons, who would come into the contact with such papers.”
{{/usCountry}}The judge didn’t mince words about health risks, expressing his “anxiety” that if “such kind of filthy practice is not restrained, the same will create cause of any sorts of infection to the persons, who would come into the contact with such papers.”
{{/usCountry}}Singh identified the contamination could be occurring at multiple levels — “either by the Clerk, Oath Commissioner or the Officers/Officials, who are dealing with the matter in the Registry and in the Office of G.A. and C.S.C.”
The court’s solution was direct: senior registry officials must now “carefully examine” all filings to “ensure that no paper having such saliva spot of any kind be entertained or accepted by the Registry.”
Justice Singh also directed the government advocate and chief standing counsel to issue written instructions preventing the practice in their offices, extending the hygiene mandate beyond the courthouse.
The phenomenon appears to be a byproduct of the widespread habit of licking fingers to turn pages, combined with Uttar Pradesh’s pervasive paan culture. The betel leaf preparation, consumed across economic and social lines, leaves distinctive red stains when users spit or touch surfaces.
The assembly incident in March had required an hour-long cleaning process using specialised chemicals, with staff applying cleaning solution several times to remove a single stain from the carpeted main hall.
Justice Singh’s order makes clear that in his courtroom, at least, the cost of maintaining traditional habits may now include having your legal papers rejected at the door.